Some firmwares present data tables that can be parsed to retrieve
device-specific details, like MAC addresses. While in some cases, one
could teach the firmware to understand the device tree format and insert
a 'mac-address'/'local-mac-address' property into the FDT on its own,
this method can be brittle (e.g., involving memorizing expected FDT
structure), and it's not strictly necessary -- especially when parsers
for such firmware formats are already needed in the OS for other
reasons.
One such format: the Vital Product Data (VPD) [1] used by Coreboot. It
supports a table of key/value pairs, and some systems keep MAC addresses
there in a well-known format. Allow a device tree to specify
(1) that the MAC address for a given device is stored in the VPD table
and
(2) what key should be used to retrieve the MAC address for said
device (e.g., "ethernet_mac0" or "wifi_mac1").
[1] Ref:
https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromiumos/platform/vpd/+/master/README.md
TL;DR: VPD consists of a TLV-like table, with key/value pairs of
strings. This is often stored persistently on the boot flash and
presented via in-memory Coreboot tables, for the operating system to
read.
Signed-off-by: Brian Norris <briannorris@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
---
Documentation/devicetree/bindings/net/ethernet.txt | 12 ++++++++++++
1 file changed, 12 insertions(+)
diff --git a/Documentation/devicetree/bindings/net/ethernet.txt b/Documentation/devicetree/bindings/net/ethernet.txt
index cfc376bc977a..d3fd1da18bf4 100644
--- a/Documentation/devicetree/bindings/net/ethernet.txt
+++ b/Documentation/devicetree/bindings/net/ethernet.txt
@@ -4,6 +4,18 @@ NOTE: All 'phy*' properties documented below are Ethernet specific. For the
generic PHY 'phys' property, see
Documentation/devicetree/bindings/phy/phy-bindings.txt.
+- mac-address-lookup: string, indicating a method by which a MAC address may be
+ discovered for this device. Methods may be parameterized by some value, such
+ that the method can determine the device's MAC address using that parameter.
+ For example, a firmware might store MAC addresses in a table, keyed by some
+ predetermined string, and baked in read-only flash. A lookup method "foo"
+ with a parameter "bar" should be written "foo:bar".
+ Supported values for method:
+ "google-vpd" - Google's Vital Product Data (VPD), as used in the Coreboot
+ project. Documentation for VPD can be found at:
+ https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromiumos/platform/vpd/+/master/README.md
+ Example:
+ mac-address-lookup = "google-vpd:ethernet_mac0"
- local-mac-address: array of 6 bytes, specifies the MAC address that was
assigned to the network device;
- mac-address: array of 6 bytes, specifies the MAC address that was last used by
--
2.18.0.865.gffc8e1a3cd6-goog
